The subject of our study is how online interaction affects the emotions of Chinese millennials.Social interactions have changed over the years, especially with the introduction of Web 2.0,social interactions have shifted from offline to online. Online social interactions influence us inmany ways, such as shaping our decisions and affecting our emotions. Emotions are an essentialpart of our lives, even though they cannot be easily described, or even understood, since weexperience a variety of emotions in different situations. As a generation that grew up with Web2.0, more millennials take their social interactions online and sacrifices face-to-face interaction(Bargh & McKenna, 2004). Studies have examined both positive and negative outcomes for suchsacrifice without a definite conclusion. Our emphasis is on Chinese millennials, because of thelack of current studies and the potential influence of Chinese millennials (Wang, 2017).We conducted an exploratory comparison study and concluded with a description of a model forunderstanding the emotional journey during online social interactions. We sampled four groupsof three Chinese millennials for an in-depth qualitative study through interviews, andobservations of both face-to-face and online interactions. The entry and exit interviews areconducted in relations to the two 1-hour observations. We found six themes and eight sub themes:(1) Lack of physical presence (Physical proximity, context cues), (2) disrupted conversation flow(Conversation pacing, expectation of the communication methods), (3) increased chance ofconflict (Response speed), (4) increased self-disclosure, (5) little information shared (Distractionand lack of purpose, efficiency, enduring physical pain), and (6) high level of support. We havefound that context cues and achieving conversation purpose are focal points of the emotionalexperience, as well as how online self-disclosed information is and most likely remain differentfrom offline self-disclosed information due to the concept of presence. This study’s goal is not toprove whether online social interactions affect millennials’ emotions, or to what extent thisphenomenon exists. Rather, the aim is to explore how individuals are emotionally affected andwhat factors may be the cause.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-39726 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Li, Michael, Jing, Jiarui |
| Publisher | Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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